Published 11:22 pm, Wednesday, October 3, 2012

A mysterious call in the final minutes of Wednesday night's boys soccer match at Danbury High could not prevent a 1-1 draw, as Hatters senior midfielder Kenny Wilson curled a far-side corner kick through a fog and into the box to draw an unexplained penalty that he could not convert with 3:56 left in regulation.

Neither coach heard "hand-ball." Nor "foul." And when Wilson's searing effort clanged off the crossbar, it almost seemed just.

"I have no idea what their penalty call was," said Stamford coach Mario Caminiti. "Honestly, justice was served."

"It's kind of a sketchy call," added Danbury coach Sean Colley, who saw some jostling but not enough to warrant a whistle at such a critical juncture. "It's a fair result, because they had opportunities too."

Still, Danbury produced perhaps the cleanest looks, two of which were additional one-on-one scenarios in the second half. Early in the second, Edison Matute, who assisted Jordan Warren's goal in the fourth minute, found himself alone in the box but couldn't beat a sliding Ron Andre. And Andre, who gambled too far off his line on Warren's goal, punched away the senior striker's breakaway offering with 17 minutes left in regulation.

"It's frustrating because Stamford's a really good team," Colley said. "I thought, in the second half, we had three really great opportunities. Two one-on-one's in the box and a penalty kick with our best player (Wilson). ... I'd put him in there 100 out of 100 times. So it's unfortunate that he missed. He probably over-kicked it a little bit."

The Black Knights equalized in the 17th minute when sophomore midfielder Joey Schinella unleashed a knuckling, 30-yard strike that surprised Shannon but not the Stamford bench.

"He's really stepping up for us with one of our captains, Eric Altamura, out with a major injury," Caminiti said of Schinella. "We have a lot of confidence in him. He's a smart player. He's scored previously in the same manner."